Tours & Day Trips

Guided tours in Dublin aren't just a convenient way to see a lot in a short time – they're often the fastest route to knowledge you'd struggle to piece together on your own. The range runs from walking tours led by history graduates, through musical pub crawls, to day trips out to the west coast. This guide sorts through the main tours, gives current 2026 prices and times, and is honest about which outings are worth it and which ones are mostly spent on a bus.

City classics – Guinness, Trinity and Glasnevin

Three sights turn up in almost every tour itinerary, and they work well independently of a guided group too.

The Guinness Storehouse is Dublin's most visited attraction. The standard "Experience Only" ticket costs from around 22 euros with dynamic pricing and takes about 90 minutes across seven floors tracing the history of the stout, ending with a pint in the Gravity Bar and its panoramic view over the city. Opening hours are Sunday to Friday 10:00 to 19:00, Saturdays until 20:00, with last admission two hours before closing; extended hours apply in July and August. Upgraded tickets are also available – the Guinness Academy with a Perfect Pint course from €34, the STOUTie with a pint selfie from €30, the guided "Home of Guinness" experience from €48, or the Open Gate Brewery Paddle from €39.

One common misconception is worth clearing up here: the Storehouse has no whiskey tasting. It's entirely about beer. If you want to try whiskey, head to the separate Roe & Co Distillery in the Liberties, a few minutes' walk away, or one of the other distilleries such as the Jameson Distillery. More on this in our guide to Guinness & Whiskey.

Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I and is Ireland's oldest university – strictly speaking, the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin. Its alumni include Samuel Beckett, after whom the campus's Samuel Beckett Theatre is named. The main draw is the Book of Kells Experience; the 2026 ticket costs €25 for adults, €22 concession, €12 for children (under 12 free), and €55 for a family ticket. Booking online for a timed slot is strongly recommended.

A little further out lies Glasnevin Cemetery, with more than 1.5 million burials, including the grave of nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell beneath a large boulder. The museum costs €8, the guided tour €15, and the grounds themselves are free to enter. A guided cemetery tour brings Irish history to life through the people buried here far more vividly than any guidebook can.

Walking tours and historical tours

Dublin rewards exploring on foot more than almost any other way. The Historical Walking Tours of Dublin (formerly Historical Insights, now booked via historicaltours.ie) run for about two hours and are led by history graduates. They connect Trinity College, the medieval city and political landmarks; specific themed tours on social history or the Rising rotate and aren't always on the schedule.

Dublin can also be explored on a private or small-group guided walk – these run separately, often for up to six people, and let you choose a focus such as literature, architecture or history. For independent travellers, they're a good choice when you want insider tips for the rest of your stay.

One restriction to know for 2026 affects many city-centre tours: Dublin Castle is closed to the public from 5 May to 31 December 2026 (Ireland's EU Council Presidency). Anyone travelling during this period won't be able to visit the State Apartments with St Patrick's Hall, the Undercroft, or the Chapel Royal. In normal operation, the castle opens daily 09:45 to 17:45 (last admission 17:15), with the self-guided tour costing €8 and the guided tour €12. If a tour advertises the castle as a highlight, check the dates carefully for 2026.

Pub crawls and quirky evening tours

Dublin's evening tours run on stories, music and the odd pint. They're generally not suitable for young children, and many set a minimum age.

• Dublin Literary Pub Crawl: Four pubs, two actors, with scenes from Joyce, Beckett, Shaw, Yeats, Wilde and Heaney in between. Daily at 19:15 from April to October, Thursday to Sunday from November to March, booked via dublinpubcrawl.com. The exact choice of pubs varies by tour.
• Traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl: About 2.5 hours (150 minutes), with two professional musicians leading the way from pub to pub and explaining the Irish session and its musical history. It runs frequently, close to daily, in summer (roughly March to October), with reduced dates in winter; the current price is around €22, with the meeting point and booking via musicalpubcrawl.com.
• Ghost bus tours: The DoDublin Ghostbus continues to run in 2026, with professional actors, departures around 19:00 and 21:30, lasting about 2.5 hours. The independent Gravedigger Ghost Bus Tour runs for about two hours, sets off in the evening around 19:45, and includes a stop at the Glasnevin pub John Kavanagh "The Gravediggers" with a drink included; prices vary by operator and date but run around 25 to 38 US dollars.

Live-music bus tours that used to travel from music pub to music pub aren't currently available in that form. If you want music, the Musical Pub Crawl is the safest bet today.

Bus and boat tours around the city

If you'd rather sit back and let the city come to you, there are two easy options.

The hop-on-hop-off city tour in Dublin is run by DoDublin, a subsidiary of Dublin Bus. A full loop takes around 90 minutes on average, and the format lets you get off at any sight and rejoin later – from the Guinness Storehouse to Phoenix Park to St Patrick's Cathedral. One thing to know: the tour itself does not include admission to the sights. The DoDublin "Freedom Ticket" combines 48 hours of hop-on-hop-off with 72 hours of unlimited public transport (bus, DART, Luas), including an airport transfer via routes 16 and 41; exact prices depend on the date. Admission to sights is only bundled with the separate Dublin Pass. We explain how the products differ in our guides to the hop-on-hop-off tour and public transport.

On the water, the River Liffey Sightseeing Cruise shows the city from an unusual angle. The 45-minute cruise runs aboard the "Spirit of Docklands", a red, glass-roofed boat that departs from Bachelor's Walk; the price is around €15 to €22. It tells the city's story from the water – Dublin traces back to a 9th-century Viking settlement (a longphort founded around 841), so the city's history spans roughly 1,000 years.

A step up is the Grand Canal Dinner Cruise run by the Canal Boat Restaurant aboard the "Cadhla", an eco-friendly replica of a Guinness canal barge that glides along almost silently. The roughly two-hour cruise includes a set three-course menu and a glass of house wine or beer; the price is around 79 US dollars. (This is the Grand Canal in Dublin, not the Grand Canal in Venice.)

Dublin can also be explored by bike in a group. City cycling tours usually run 2.5 to 3 hours, with the hire bike typically included and an easy difficulty level. For something more traditionally romantic, horse-drawn carriages depart from St Stephen's Green, mainly during the summer months.

Day trips to the west coast – Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher are the most spectacular day trip destination from Dublin – and also the most demanding. The cliffs rise to 214 metres and stretch for almost 8 kilometres to Hags Head on the west coast in County Clare. Online admission in 2026 during peak hours (11:00 to 16:00) costs around €10 for adults, €9 concession, €20 for a family ticket, with children under 12 free; it's cheaper outside peak hours. The price includes parking, the exhibition and O'Brien's Tower.

Birdwatchers should time their visit carefully: more than 30,000 pairs of over 20 seabird species nest on the cliffs, including guillemots, razorbills and puffins. The puffins are present from late March to mid-July, with the best sighting chances in May and June; the general breeding season runs from April to July.

It's worth knowing what you're signing up for: the day trip from Dublin typically takes 12 to 13 hours, since it crosses Ireland and back. Usually only 2 to 2.5 hours are spent on site. If you don't mind the long coach journey and an early start, you're rewarded with one of the most impressive coastal panoramas in Europe.

Day trips north, south and into the mountains

Beyond the Cliffs, there are several other full-day tours – with very different levels of effort involved.

• Giant's Causeway & Belfast (Northern Ireland): The basalt columns are a natural wonder, but it's a very bus-heavy day. Tours from Dublin take around 12 to 13 hours (departure around 07:00, return around 20:00 to 21:00). Admission to the Visitor Experience in 2026 costs around £9 for adults, £4.50 for children, £22 for a family ticket (cheaper online); the walk to the columns themselves is free, and the fee covers parking, the exhibition, the audio guide and the visitor centre. On most tours, Belfast only gets a short stop of around an hour, or a choice between the Titanic Experience and the Black Taxi Tour (about 90 minutes each) – not enough to really experience the city.
• Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough & Kilkenny: A more relaxed tour of around 9 hours, returning around 17:30 to 18:00. Laragh often includes a roughly 30-minute sheepdog demonstration. The Glendalough monastic site, with St Kevin's Church and the 30-metre round tower, is a National Monument and free to enter (only parking is charged), with usually around 2 hours 15 minutes of free time on site.
• Cork, Cobh & Blarney Castle: In the south, Blarney Castle draws visitors with its famous "Stone of Eloquence". Admission in 2026 costs around €18 to €23 for adults, including the Blarney Stone and the gardens; you can climb the battlements and kiss the stone. Summer opening hours are around 09:00 to 18:00, with last admission 60 minutes before closing.

One thing applies to all these day trips: they're long days with plenty of travel time. If you're planning several, alternate them with quieter city days rather than booking them back to back.